I'm reading "The tradwife schools making ‘noble maidens’ of Russian girls/A state-backed elective programme prepping schoolgirls for domestic life is expanding under the Kremlin’s push for traditional values" (London Times).
"For the past 30 years, Russia has battled natural population decline: low birth rates coupled with notoriously high mortality rates... Meanwhile the state has aggressively restricted and criminalised anything that it deems to fall outside its definition of traditional family values.... In 2023 the supreme court designated LGBT groups as extremist organisations, making them equivalent in the eyes of the law to neo-Nazi groups and Islamic State. The following year, the Kremlin brought in legislation that outlawed the promotion of a 'childless lifestyle' across the media, internet, literature and films.... [J]ournalists spoke to some of the parents who have put their daughters into the Traditional Education of Girls course. One woman said that the programme initially struggled to recruit. 'There were a lot of whispers around the room about how they were going to raise nuns and housekeepers,' the woman said."
Posts
43 comments:
Funny how a country with a declining population, low debt, and massive natural resources would start and *unprovoked* war with a region with a growing population, few natural resources, and high debt...
One would almost think that it would work the other way around, you know, like Charles XII of Sweden, or Napoleon, or Hitler... But that's plainly nonsense!
Not that long ago I watched The Stepford Wives from 1975. It was much better than I expected although I didn't pick up on the satire. Next I tried the 2004 remake but it was unwatchably stupid. Maybe that was the satire, out, loud, and proud.
Anyway, what's so very bad about improving a young women's marriageability? The purported skepticism might well reflect the concern that the investment will return insufficient results. There just aren't enough noblemen to go round and who wants to overpay for a nun or housekeeper, anyway?
…this would seem right up Ann’s alley excepting the stick instead of carrot. People do respond to incentives. One way to get there…
I commend the LT for making the effort to once more try and fail to link MAGA with Putin’s Russia and reaching all the way back to the 19th century is a nice touch. But ultimately the article fails to persuade.
“Nuns and housekeepers” sounds so last Century. Way way back in the last century.
…they shouldn’t conflate because there’s a huge population of women in the valley between parents and nuns/housekeepers…and isn’t this a diss to housekeepers? In my area many of them have six figure incomes. One of them drives some kind of late model Mercedes. They’re kicking ass…
What most sticks in my mind about 1975's "Stepford Wives" is Katharine Ross's shiny eyes. Back in that day, we joked at how they were similar to the eyes used in "Kimba" and "Speed Racer." What a weird thing to remember, I know. But there it is.
Hadn't thought of that flick in ages.
Yes it was terrible but then again katherind ross was unsurpassed but you see the hatred for children from the clancy coven
A bit of context. The quoted bits incorrectly suggest this is an all-encompassing curriculum at specially constructed schools. But Chat says:
"The girls, ages 10–16, receive the normal Russian school curriculum, including mathematics, science and other required subjects. But they attend special classes, generally separated from boys, and study nine additional subjects, including cooking, floristry, fashion history, morality, art and wedding traditions."
My mom took me to that movie, and she also had the book, which I read. I did not go through much of an "eye-rolling" stage as a teen (not that I would have been allowed to do that overtly), but I remember that movie and book being coincident with a brief period of at least feeling that way.
I don’t think that Putin is really wrong here, but this isn’t something that we could do. The Russians need population growth, not decline, in their white Christian population. They are getting it in their Muslim populations, but they look at Western Europe, and see where that is going. They are getting Muslims refuse to assimilate, often live on graft and corruption, and figure that they will win long term, by their women just staying home and having babies.
Face it. The more traditional women’s roles are in society, the more kids they will have. And long term, the larger the population that a demographic will have, the more power they will have.
Russia has a decking Russian population. China has a declining Chinese population. Western Europe has a declining European population. Ditto much of the rest of the 1st World. The US is in a little better shape because Hispanics, to the south, assimilate much better than Muslims. They are Christian, mostly Roman Catholic, and happily share churches and schools with everyone else. Plus, we retain some traditional cultures, who do their share maintaining our population level.
Russia is smart.
If I had a son I would send him to visit the school mixing events.
imTay: Just wondering which region you think has a 'growing population'?
Everyone tries to view other countries and cultures as we would here in America. Frankly, I'm not sure what we are these days, but Russia is not now, and never has been like us. Even when their upper class appeared to be Western-like in years before the Bolsheviks, they were very Russian.
Anyway, I do expect a new Hulu series to shoot up over Trad Wives. Change the costumes and they might get another two years out of their Handmaid's Tale sets.
In the meantime, much of the world has quit making babies. If this ends up cleaning up the drunks and childless in Russia, more power to them.
Women were taught to play the piano so as to have a source of music in the home, before mechanical aids. Gramaphone etc. Things went downhill after radio moved on from Morse Code.
Though "Ben's best bent wire" is a hit in Morse Code.
the future Belongs to those who show up
aside from the amish and the arabs.. WHO Will that be?
The damage done to our society by feminism is very nearly fatal. A few generations of women now have been deprived of stories, films, tv shows and role models that depict happy home life, and the strength of the women who run those households. There are no Mrs. MInivers, how green was my valley, life with father… except for the evergreen Jane Austen productions, you would never know that for all of history until about five minutes ago the purpose of dating and courtship was to find a suitable mate— there was no more important decision a young man or woman could make.
Did they mention whether the girls choose this curriculum? Or does the patriarchal state impose it?
Quick, somebody ask Bill Clinton how he feels about this attack on feminism.
When I was in school in the fifties and early sixties this was called "home economics." Of course, this was before feminism ruined everything.
meanwhile; here in America..
we tell girls to insist on ONLY being with men that over
6 foot
6 figures
6 inches
we ALSO tell them to refuse to even consider babies until they are in their mid 30's (or 40's (or 50's (or NEVER)))
WHO is going to BE the next generation of Americans?
hint: it WON'T be the children of the left
still wonder WHY the Democrat party is now FULL muslim brotherhood?
London Times worried about Russia wanting more traditional roles for women. I think they ought to consider what all those Muslim immigrants entering their country want to do with women. After all, Putin is doing what he is doing in Russia. The immigrants are in the UK, and they already have a history of abusing women in more traditional ways in the UK. They also start young.
'...When I was in school in the fifties and early sixties this was called "home economics...'
They called it that in the early 70s too. The smart guys who weren't jocks, but had some nerve, were the ones enrolled in Home Ec. (we had a couple in our school)
How quaint, right? I mean, in comparison to our more enlightened schools where our glorious teachers' unions teach our girls how to put condoms on cucumbers, dress like Kansas City hookers, and plan how to dispose of unwanted mistakes. Not to mention advanced half-head-shaving, rainbow haircoloring, and assorted body part piercing and tattooing. Gives a whole new meaning to "finishing schools". As in "girls, you're finished if you learn to live like what we're teaching you..."
Brilliant idea to start a war where roughly one in 25 Russian men aged 18–49 have been killed or severely wounded since the full-scale invasion began and at the same time start classes for young women in order to stem population decline.
Yet another failure of central planning.
They used to have Home Economics classes and Shop classes in middle school and high school. For a long time Home Ec. was for girls and Shop was for boys, but back in the 70's a few girls started taking shop and a few boys took Home Ec. Then it rapidly became the norm that both programs were coed. Both seem to have gotten phased out as the aspiration was for everyone to go to college. Maybe shop is coming back because we have a skilled trades shortage. I don't know about Home Ec. No doubt both will have a different name now.
"A bit of context...."
Thanks. I didn't mean to give that impression. I left in the term "finishing school," which is explanatory.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finishing_school
"A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society.The name reflects the fact that it follows ordinary school and is intended to complete a young woman's education by providing classes primarily on deportment, etiquette, and other non-academic subjects. The school may offer an intensive course or a one-year program. In the United States, a finishing school is sometimes called a charm school."
Putin’s slogan should be “More babies for more war.”
Or “You make babies. We make war”
I had Home Ec in the 1960s. It had 2 parts: 1. Cooking, and 2. Sewing. All the girls had to take it and all the boys took 1. Mechanical drawing, and 2. Shop. You didn't have the option to take the other program. Lots of useful skills were taught.
The term "tradwife" stretches a long way. You find it used to attack ideas of women's subjugation to their husbands. Here, it's used to attack education in what used to be called "home economics." That's good, useful, practical training. So were shop classes.
Western imperialists demand that women enter the employment market. They brook no opposition and they never seem to reflect on what the negative effect on their own society has been.
My other reaction to this article is that, contrary to the chuckleworthiness of its intent, I believe that something like this type of school for young women would be a huge commercial success here in the U.S. at this time. And I'm not chuckling.
My advice to the young Russian women who want a traditional home and marriage: Leave Russia.
See "Yesteryear." I don't want to give away the lesson of its ending. Because I haven't reached it yet. Whatever you've heard, there is a real book in there. It may not fit either of the obvious templates. How come you haven't discussed this giant phenomenon yet, AA? I know that is the surefire way to discourage and annoy you. But c'mONNN.
--- I believe that something like this type of school for young women would be a huge commercial success here in the U.S. at this time [planetgeo]
Agree! Maybe it's been going on more subtly for some time. The change from the decadence of "women's liberation" to the conservation of our species seems inevitable.
Nuns and housekeepers. I thought they were supposed to be the opposite of Nuns. LOL. Russia needs kids, and this is there way to get there. I dunno what carrot you need to dangle in front of women to get them to have 2.1 children per female. If this works, good for Russia.
Interesting, that Russia understands that people are affected by what they see on TV. Promote sex and the city and you get young girls wanting to do that.
I went to HS in the late 70s, early 80s and we were all forced to take shop and home ec. The home ec was good for cooking, so I appreciated it. However, we also did sewing, which I hated and have never done.
Bob Boyd, that's what I recall from my 1970s era jr/sr high years. The classes weren't co-ed but we swapped between the two programs. That was, of course, before they were eliminated entirely
YouTube: Is well-to-do Seattle like well-to-do Russia? They are both worrying.
Yes, finishing school and sending your daughter to a Swiss residential high school for girls has long been an elite style point for the wealthy. In Victorian society a wife of a lord was required to do household accounts, pay the help, and do purchasing, all these skills were carefully taught by tutors.
"In tsarist times Russia’s aristocracy sent its daughters to finishing schools known as Institutes for Noble Maidens..."
I saw a bunch of plants that looked like Noble Maidens while hiking in a local park this summer.
@Kai Akker:
Thanks for Yesteryear. Subject of the book made me think - why didn’t I think of that. Sounds really good.
Filed under Authoritarianism we like
Russia autocrats bad. Democrat Socialist autocrats good.
We had shop and home ec in junior high school and two years mandatory JROTC for boys in HS (I graduated in 1971).
According to the Interwebz, Russian education includes a lot of military and military-adjacent topics for both boys and girls. That's unimaginable here.
My wife went to a Catholic girls' school; I will have to ask her about tradwife tendencies, although I have to doubt that the nuns who made up most of the faculty had much knowledge or insight to impart on the subject.
With RAAT ideology incorporated under the Diversity umbrella mbrella, transwife is a liberal progression. LOL
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.